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Hi guys.I need some help here, to obtain a good non-legato touch, especially during fast passages.I can easily obatain legato or staccato, but when it comes to non-legato, I get completly lost.Let me give you an example of what I am talking about:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HZRB-x5LNgw

When I try to play using a touch like this, it simply doesn't come out!It seems strict legato or staccato ech give me a specific feeling, which helps archiving what i want.Problem is this simply doesn't happen with non-legato!Could you guys give me some orientation on playing with a non-legato touch, similar to the video I posted?Thanks a lot

I read somewhere the recommendation of practicing passages by holding the chord that you are playing silently and lifting your fingers when you need to. That is, practice the release rather than the attack. It will not sound right, but you will learn the technique.

You can always "cheat" by playing staccato with your foot resting very lightly on the damper pedal.

Otherwise, there really is only one solution: slow practice until you get a feel for how long you want to hold the note. Try practicing with something simple, like a five-note scale or a C-major scale. Just get the feeling under your fingers, then go back to the piece.

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Well could anyone give me a more objective answer?Please guys, I really need help!

If you can't get the sound you're looking for, intuitively, you'll have to work at getting it, I guess, but there's no great secret.

Presumably, you know how to play legato and you know how to play staccato. What you are aiming at is somewhere - and the somewhere is your choice - in between. Try a simple five-finger exercise, very slowly, clearly imagining the sound you want to produce and then keep working at it until you get the sound and you have the "feel" that produced that sound.

I don't know how to verbalize what "mechanics" you have to employ to get what you're after, because I really don't think there's any great mystery about producing variances of touch. Simply stated, you don't hold the note as long as you would to obtain a legato sound, but you hold it longer than you would to produce a staccato sound.

I think that the formulation "non-legato" in itself poses a difficulty. It says only what you don't want to play, and the problem isn't what you don't want but what you do want, what the composer wants.

Playing the piano has two essential sides to it: knowing what kind of sound you want to produce or is the right one, being able to physically produce that sound. I would not be able to produce what Gould is doing for more than three seconds because my hand would cramp up. I have a teacher for the first time and we're sorting out basic things that I have been doing and replacing it with other things. Without seeing the OP play and knowing what he has tried, can advice really be given?

You can always "cheat" by playing staccato with your foot resting very lightly on the damper pedal.

Hi. This isn't cheating at all, it is simply a gross misunderstanding. It has nothing to do whatsoever with tenuto or portato or stacatto or anything "non-legato". Legato and non-legato concern exclusively the use of the hands.

You can always "cheat" by playing staccato with your foot resting very lightly on the damper pedal.

Hi. This isn't cheating at all, it is simply a gross misunderstanding. It has nothing to do whatsoever with tenuto or portato or stacatto or anything "non-legato". Legato and non-legato concern exclusively the use of the hands.

While that can be agreed upon, I am a believer that the method of sound production is less important than they type of sound produced.

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Every day we are afforded a new chance. The problem with life is not that you run out of chances. In the end, what you run out of are days.

Thanks a lot.As far as I understood, portato should be played by distinct arm motions , but not deliberately aiming at separating the notes.Is that right?Also, should my fingers stick to the keys all the time?I still seem not to be quite exacly getting to this baroque/classical non-legato sound.I don't know what is wrong,maybe I don't even know what am I looking for?

Thanks a lot.As far as I understood, portato should be played by distinct arm motions , but not deliberately aiming at separating the notes.Is that right?[...]

I think you are wrong on both counts.

First : You certainly don't need "distinct arm motions" to play a portato passage. Whether the passage is a simple four- or five-note portion of a scale passage or something longer, you certainly aren't going to move your arms to play such a passage portato, just as you wouldn't, necessarily, if it were a legato or a staccato passage. In other words "distinct arm motions" don't produce portato.

As the dictionary defines portato, it is "a musical articulation midway between staccato and legato. It is indicated by a slur over notes bearing a staccato dot or by a tenuto marking combined with a staccato dot." Often, in the case of Baroque music, portato isn't even indicated - except, perhaps, in heavily edition editions - since portato is often considered standard performance practice in much of Baroque music, depending on the context.

Second : In effect, then, there is a slight separation of notes when playing portato, otherwise you are playing legato.